Commonly speculated at the time, now it’s official: UW-Stout coach Todd Strop was indeed forced out in January. Since he was under contract to the school through July 1, he only recently spoke to the Eau Claire, Wis., Leader-Telegram.

You may recall his resignation came shortly after an outgoing UW-Stout player was arrested on drug problems.

“Obviously, from my point of view, I feel it was mishandled,” Strop said. “To me, from an outsider looking in, it looks like it was just swept under the rug and that, ‘OK, that situation is all cleaned up.’ But the reality is, the situation is still there to be dealt with, and I felt like I was the guy to deal with it.”

Of course, athletic director Larry Terry later got forced out in a similar manner, after it was revealed that six of 58 UW-Stout football players (10.3%) tested positive for steroids, five (8.6%) for marijuana and one (1.7%) for amphetamines. That apparently got him the ax, though the newspaper points out that 20% of Division III student-athletes in a recent NCAA survey said they had used marijuana in the past 12 months.

“I don’t think there’s another school in the conference that we could drug test where you wouldn’t find out that college kids smoke dope. It’s a reality,” Terry said.

I hope new coach Duey Naatz knows what he’s getting into — first piece of bad news and the chancellor could be calling for him, too.